Members of United Auto Workers Local 218 on July 22 ratified a new, four-year contract with Bell Helicopter. A summary of that contract follows.
Based on that ratification, Local 218 members are to return to work at Bell on Monday, July 27. No employee shall be permitted to return to work prior to attending a return-to-work orientation session, except for those employees on an approved leave of absence or off-site assignment. Check back here shortly for details on those sessions.
Bell Helicopter's comprehensive contract offer to Local 218 of the United Automotive, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) provides its members at Bell general wage increases in three of the four contract years, a cash ratification bonus for each member, improved pension benefits and a choice among three consumer-driven health care plans.
Specifically, the four-year contract offers:
· General wage increases over the life of the contract
· Three general increases of 3 percent in the second, third and fourth years of the contract
· Fifteen anticipated cost-of-living adjustments
· Increased upgrade pay
· Accelerated automatic progression increases
· A cash ratification bonus of $3,500
· Three health care options
· Three consumer-driven health plans, each of which provides 100 percent coverage for preventive medical care
· Options to offset their annual health care costs through company-funded Health Savings and Health Reimbursement Accounts
· Pension-plan improvements that include an 11.7 percent increase in the monthly multiplier from $60 to $67 on Sept. 1, 2009.
· Fifty paid holidays over the course of the four-year contract.
· Higher-paying job classifications for current janitors at Bell; the janitor job classification will be phased out by September 30, 2009
